ISP Events up to 2006

Access 2 Knowledge (A2K) ConferenceYale Law School
April 21-23, 2006Website

In the digital era, most multinational corporations and policymakers are of the view that the current trend characterised by increasing intellectual property rights and corporate control over knowledge best serve society's interests. At the same time, however, a growing number of commentators believe that widespread access to knowledge (A2K) and the preservation of a healthy knowledge commons are the real basis for sustainable human development. Nonetheless, intellectual property-based approaches continue to singlehandedly dictate global legal norms and shape national legal infrastructures.

The first goal of the Yale A2K Initiative is to come up with a new analytic framework for analysing the possibly distortive effects of public policies relying exclusively on intellectual property rights. Beyond this aim, the A2K initiative seeks to support the adoption and development of alternative ways to foster greater access to knowledge in the digitally connected environment.

The landmark A2K conference at Yale Law School will bring together leading thinkers and activists on access to knowledge policy from North and South, in order to generate concrete research agendas and policy solutions for the next decade. This conference will be among the first to synthesize the multifaceted and interdisciplinary aspects of access to knowledge, ranging from textbooks and telecommunications access to software and medicines. The A2K Conference aims to help build an intellectual framework that will protect access to knowledge both as the basis for sustainable human development and to safeguard human rights.

Regulating Search 2005 About the Symposium
Yale Law School

December 25, 2005 , New Haven, CT
Search is big business, and search functionality increasingly shapes the information society. Yet how the law treats search is still up for grabs, and with it, the power to dominate the next generation of the online world. How will this potential to wield control affect search engine companies, their advertisers, their users, or the information they index? What will search engines look like in the future, and what is the role of regulators in this emerging market? This symposium will map out the terrain of search engine law & policy.
Regulating Search? is the first academic conference devoted to search engines and the law. The symposium will bring together technologists, policymakers, entrepreneurs, executives, lawyers, computer scientists, and activists to discuss the emerging field of search engine law. It will examine trends in litigation involving search engines, identify the interests that are implicated by the increasing legal control of search, and discuss appropriate public policy responses.

December 25, 2005 , New Haven, CT
Search is big business, and search functionality increasingly shapes the information society. Yet how the law treats search is still up for grabs, and with it, the power to dominate the next generation of the online world. How will this potential to wield control affect search engine companies, their advertisers, their users, or the information they index? What will search engines look like in the future, and what is the role of regulators in this emerging market? This symposium will map out the terrain of search engine law & policy.
Regulating Search? is the first academic conference devoted to search engines and the law. The symposium will bring together technologists, policymakers, entrepreneurs, executives, lawyers, computer scientists, and activists to discuss the emerging field of search engine law. It will examine trends in litigation involving search engines, identify the interests that are implicated by the increasing legal control of search, and discuss appropriate public policy responses.

Digital Mix 2005

Yale Law School Auditorium

December 15, 2005
6:30-11:30

About Digital Mix

Musical creation has historically evolved independent of the law. Copyright law, which protects musical works from unauthorized copying, has traditionally steered clear of intervening with the creation of music. An exploding new musical movement however, the art of the DJ, has grown in tension with the law. Rooted in the digital appropriation of sound samples and image clips, DJ music takes shape in conflict with the legal regime of copyright not yet comfortably adapted to the digital age. DJ music and video provokes not only artistic reflection, but a re-examination of how law and music can evolve together.

Digital Mix, a one-of-a-kind musical event, brings the avant-garde of music to the future of law in the digital age. The event is sponsored by the Yale Information Society Project, a center for the study of law and technology at Yale Law School, and Public Knowledge, a new public-interest advocacy organization dedicated to fortifying and defending a vibrant information commons. Digital Mix will celebrate DJ culture and raise awareness of the laws that threaten it to a new community- mixing musical performance with prominent speakers.
DJ Spooky, a virtuoso DJ and leading spokesman for the art and intellectual movement of DJ culture, will headline the event with a musical performance and presentation of his art. Mark Hosler of Negativland, a legend in the art of digital appropriation, will show video clips of recent Negativland projects and discuss his long experience with the clash of copyright law and art. Mike Godwin of Public Knowledge, a leading advocate of the public interest in information and cultural policy, will talk about the latest legal and legislative challenges to democratic culture. Finally, Nelson Pavlosky, of the Free Culture, will talk about the efforts of students across campuses to organize and support these issues.

2004-2005

Global Flow of Information
A Conference on Law, Culture, and Political Economy
Yale Law School
April 1-3, 2005 Website

Yale Law SchoolApril 1-3, 2005

Patterns of information flow are one of the most important factors shaping globalization. Today individuals, groups, countries, and international organizations are trying to promote and control the flow of different kinds of information across national borders; information ranging from intellectual property and scientific research to political discourse, brand names and cultural symbols. And digitally networked environments subject information to ever new methods of distribution and manipulation. Fights over information flow are going to help define who holds power in the global information economy. This conference explored these emerging patterns of information flow, and their political, economic, social, and cultural consequences.

State of Play II - Reloaded
Fall 2004

The State of Play, an annual conference sponsored by New York Law School and Yale Law School, explores the next frontier in the evolution of cyberspace: virtual worlds.

Nethead/ Bellhead ConferenceThe FCC Takes on the Internet
Cardozo School of Law
Fall 2004

2003-2004

The State of Play I
Law, games, and virtual worlds
New York Law School
Fall 2003

We will bring together game designers, lawyers, academics, and artists to discuss the complex social, psychological, and legal issues to which games give rise.

Digital Democracy
New York Law School
Fall 2003

This international collaboration aims to promote democracy by studying how new technologies can promote democratic deliberation, participation, and decisionmaking. We are interested in realizing technology's potential to improve civic life and help citizens take and active and informed role in their own governance.